The origin of the dog revisited

摘要

The most widely accepted hypothesis of the origin of the dog, Canis familiaris, is that the dog is a domesticated gray wolf, Canis lupus. This paper reviews the evidence for this conclusion, finds many unanswered questions and conceptual gaps in thewolf origin hypothesis, and explores the alternative hypothesis that the most likely ancestor of the domestic dog was a medium-size, generalist canid.